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SUBJECTS: Carbon Tax Announcement

Christopher Pyne: The whole point of helping the environment is “that’s a good idea, why wouldn’t we do all that?” The Coalition says lets do it through practical, direct action which Australians like, where they see a benefit for their dollar being spent.  The whole problem with the carbon tax is that it’s just a great big “money-go-round”.  Where’s the money going and who’s getting it?  And what’s it being spent on?  The Government can’t seem to answer any of those questions. 

Apparently six months ago Julia Gillard said cars were a problem because they were emitting fuel into the atmosphere and half the reason for the carbon tax was to make that less attractive, but now apparently we’re moving fuel from the carbon tax altogether.  So the Government can’t keep the message consistent from breakfast time to lunch time and I think the public are very confused about why we’re going through this pain for apparently no gain. 

Now obviously as South Australians we support the Whyalla steelworks and the Pt Pirie lead smelter because they employ thousands and thousands of South Australians and all the allied industries.  But one minute the Government is saying that the steel mill and the lead smelter are bad because they’re bad for the environment, now they’re saying they should be praised apparently because they’ve carved them out of the carbon tax.  If it’s just going to be a “money-go-round” and have no impact on the environment what was it all for? 

Amanda Blair: I’m with Christopher Pyne, he’s the Member for Sturt and also the Manager of Opposition Business for the Liberal Party.  We are going to take some of your calls after news headlines. 

BREAK

Blair: she said this is what we’re doing; this is what we’re going to do…

Pyne: She didn’t say that before the election. 

Blair: No, she didn’t.  And we all know that though because your message has been very strong.  You’ve been very on message about that. 

Pyne: But it’s true.  You mentioned the GST and it’s a good point you make because Julia Gillard is always saying she’s just doing the same thing that John Howard did about the GST, which is change her mind and that she is entitled to do so.  But the difference is that John Howard said yes I’ve changed my mind.  What we’ll do is we’ll have an election and if I win the election I’ll take that as a mandate to introduce my GST and that’s exactly what he did.  Whereas Julia Gillard hasn’t had an election, she lied before the election. 

Blair: Dwayne writes exactly the same thing.  He says, “the difference between the carbon tax and the GST is that John Howard had the honesty, the integrity and the ethics to take the GST to the election where he won and therefore had a mandate from the Australian people to introduce the legislation whereas Julia Gillard is doing this by absolute stealth and she knows she doesn’t have a mandate.”  Thank you for that Dwayne. 

John from Kuala Lumpur………………..he says, “Give me a break.  The difference between Labor and the Coalition is that Howard took it to an election and won a mandate for the GST.  Labor has not got intestinal fortitude to do that.”  We are taking some calls.  I’m with Christopher Pyne the Manager of Opposition Business for the Liberal Party.  He also is a very big (inaudible) at the back of Tony Abbott and he has been doing a lot of good sparring in recent times in parliament. 

Pyne: I’ll take that as a compliment. 

Blair: No, no.  You’re very good at it.  You’re very on message in their too.  Les is from Onkaparinga Hills.  How are you Les? 

Caller 1: Yeah, well thanks Amanda, Christopher.  Actually, you’ve just talked about where I was going to go with my comments.  Chloe Fox opened up when you talked to her saying Australia has a very robust democracy.  And I guess nothing could be further from the truth, certainly federally.  80 per cent of people at the last federal election voted for the two major parties, Labor and Liberal.  Both of those went to the election with a platform of no carbon tax.  Julia Gillard did say there would be no carbon tax under any government she would lead.  And I guess in many respects she’s not leading that Government.  Bob Brown is probably the Prime Minister at the moment.  So we’ve got this anomaly now in the Lower House where they have just one seat – they’re a 12 per cent party, they hold one seat in Melbourne and Julia Gillard cannot hold a minority Government together without the support of that Adam Brant, I can’t remember his name. 

Pyne: Bandt. 

Caller 1: It’s bad for democracy.  I’ve never seen in my 46 years in this country anything so dysfunctional. 

Blair: I wonder though, and thank you for your thoughts there Les, the thing about this Christopher, is this about making our planet greener, is this about doing our bit to make sure that the planet that we have for our children and grandchildren is in better shape?  Are we being a world leader by doing this?  Is this the right thing to do?  I mean, does the Liberal Party agree that cutting our emissions is the right thing to do; it’s just the execution that’s in question? 

Pyne: Well, there are two things I’d say to that Amanda.  Number one, the policy aspect of it is we should be trying to reduce our emissions and we say the Government is going about it the wrong way.  That direct action, that improving our technology, that planting more trees, that improving the soil through carbon and agricultural practices with direct action, which will have same impact.  We will reduce our emissions by five per cent by 2020, exactly as the Government has promised.  The Government of course is buying 111 million tonnes of that from overseas, sending three billion dollars of taxpayer’s money overseas to achieve those targets.  So the policy aspect of it is, yes we should reduce our emissions, but we have a better plan

The politics of it though I think is the Government is not doing this because of the environment I think at all.  I think it’s doing it because Julia Gillard wants to be seen to be doing something.  The East Timor Solution about border protection was a fiasco.  The citizens assembly fell over.  She promised she wouldn’t stab Kevin Rudd in the back and now she’s the Prime Minister.  And I think she was searching around to make something, I think, to make it look like she was doing action as Prime Minister and gives us the carbon tax. 

Blair: So how does the Liberal Party propose – if you were in Government how would you get those big emitters of carbon come to the party.  How would you change their technology to make them greener, which Chloe said is the whole point of this?  To get those big businesses that are currently spewing toxins up into the air to change to greener ways of conducting their business.  So how would you do it in the Liberal Party? 

Pyne: Well the Government is using the very heavy hand with a tax because Labor always chooses a tax, and we would use incentives.  So we would be establishing as part of our direct action plan a fund to which people would apply in business and industry and green groups and others to say we have what we think is the best means to reduce our emissions and if the government decided if that is right, if they were in a competitive process and they had the best method then we would help fund that method.  For example if you take the coal industry it might be carbon sequestration, or making carbon cleaner making the coal emissions cleaner which is about technology, most people overseas say that the best method of reducing carbon emissions is through cleaner technologies and experts in America will say every dollar you have to spend on this you should spend on technology, because technology can solve a lot of the problems.

There are examples here in Australia, a world best technology about reducing emissions, in fact Tony Abbott talked about some of them last night in his short address to the nation following Julia Gillard’s and that is where we would head. We would achieve the same outcome as Labor in reducing emissions which will be a good thing without this heavy pointless tax which is all pain for no gain.

Blair: Tony from Para Hills, Hi Tony. 

Tony: G’Day, Hello Chris

Pyne: G’Day. 

Caller 2:  Mate I’ll say now I’m a swinging voter and I voted for you guys both state and federally last election. 

Pyne: Good

Caller 2: So I thought I’d put my case forward. I’m also putting money into superannuation, I have a lot of sympathy for the pensioners of today, I really am suspicious of this whole thing. What I’d like to know is your superannuation, is your superannuation a guaranteed percentage of your salary or are you like the rest of us dependant on market forces?

Pyne: Look Tony, I can tell you that I am not an expert on remuneration or xx but, but I am  in the scheme that was devised in 1948, so whatever that scheme was, is the scheme that I am in.

Caller 2:  OK Chris then I suspect that you get a percentage of your income guaranteed.

Pyne: I think you are right about that, I am sure you are right about that.

Caller 2: So I will be saying to you, weather you vote Liberal or Labor – I am dependent on  market forces, like many superannuants now are and into the future. Why aren’t politician superannuation at risk, like ours is at risk? Because we end up with, ………, ,in five years time regardless of this outcome with the carbon tax it’s going to affect everything quite negatively.

Pyne: Yeah, I think you are right about it affecting everything negatively. All I can tell you is that as the public servant, I’m in the same.. as the public servants have been since …. I don’t make those decisions.

I leave it up to the remuneration tribunal to make those decisions.  But I think your point is a very, very good one, for self-funded retirees and for pensioners and people on fixed incomes.  The last thing they can afford right now is an increase in the cost of living.  And I don’t believe anybody trusts this Government that the cost of living will be 0.7 percent of increase in the CPI, which even in itself is significant.  Everything else this Government has touched, has had the Midas touch in reverse.  And the truth is that no pensioners, no self-funded retirees are going to be considering every penny.

I am married with four children, and obviously we have to consider every penny that we spend and the carbon tax is not going to make the lives of average Australians any easier.

Blair: But there is nuclear energy. 

Blair: Can I just ask, the polls are not looking for the Labor Party, they haven’t been for some time and I’ve been listening to talkback radio since 9am this morning.

Pyne: You lucky thing. 

Blair: yeah lucky me, I’m living the dream, and I haven’t heard one person say anything positive, I’m talking about callers, not that that’s a great reflection, you know, out there in political land…

Pyne: But it’s an indication. 

Blair: You were just mentioning a poll then, it’s not a good decision for the Government, it’s a tough decision that they’ve had to make and it’s not looking very favourable.

Pyne: Well it’s not a tough decision that they had to make, because they promised during the election that they wouldn’t make it. It is a decision they have made because it gives the Prime Minster who has been searching around for something to give her Prime Ministership meaning, other than the grasping for power that we witnessed in July last year when she replaced Kevin Rudd, or June last year when she replaced Kevin Rudd. So if they really wanted to make a difference to Green House gas emissions, they would adopt a direct action policy.

Blair: So what happens? If the polls continue in a downwards trend and you get into Government led by Tony Abbott into the next election.

Pyne: God willing.

Blair: What happens? Do you dismantle this carbon tax policy like they did with your work choices policy, is that what happens?

Pyne: We have said that if we’re elected we will rescind the carbon tax, we will remove the carbon tax.

Blair: And you will go to your direct action plan. 

Pyne: Exactly right. So the next election is a referendum on the carbon tax. If you want the carbon tax, you’ll vote Labor or Green, and if you want no carbon tax then you’ll vote for the Coalition. And the fact that the Greens have been so open in the last 48 hours that this is the start, should strike fear in the hearts of every voter. The Greens don’t think we should stop at $23, Lee Rhiannon and Bob Brown thinks the coal industry should be closed down within ten years.  Now everyone knows in Australia that we get the vast amount of our power from coal. If there is no coal industry then our living standards will change dramatically.

ENDS